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Thursday, 16 September 2010

There is a book which has been on my Amazon wish list for a
while called 'Rose's Heavenly Cakes' by Rose Levy Beranbaum so imagine my
surprise when I came across a blog called 'Heavenly
Cake Baker' - where a bunch of very talented bakers are 'Julie and Julia-ing'
their way through this book. That's something I'd quite like to do at some
point but I need to find a baking book that I love so much that I literally
want to try every single recipe. Perhaps Rose's book will be it.

Anyway, I digress - one of the cakes they made was a chocolate
ice cream cake. As soon as I saw pictures, I was determined to make an ice
cream cake and when a friend's birthday came up, my mind immediately went to
the ice cream cake. Now try as I might, I couldn't find a recipe for Rose's
version - I guess I just have to buy the book - so I decided to improvise and I
used Nigella Lawson's Victoria Sponge recipe from 'How to be a Domestic
Goddess' because it's just an incredibly simple yet flavourful recipe. I
used Carte D'or's 'Vanilla' and 'Chocolate Inspiration' ice creams as they were
buy one get one free but if you're feeling flush, I'd recommend buying a luxury
brand of ice cream like Green & Blacks or Waitrose's Seriously Creamy
Range. The great thing with this is you can mix it up as you feel like. I'll
probably always have a layer of vanilla in mine but perhaps make the second
layer coconut and lime ice cream in summer or use just different chocolate ice
creams when I am having an intense chocolate craving. The spring form pan is
your oyster! Go crazy!

Serves 10 – 12

Prepare about 24 hours
before you intend to serve it.

Ingredients

Cake

338g unsalted butter, very soft

338g caster sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 large eggs

300g self raising flour

38g corn flour

1 and a half teaspoons baking powder

6 tablespoons of milk

12 inch spring form pan

Filling

2 litres of ice cream - I used 1 litre each of two flavours

Fudge sauce

200g milk chocolate

100g white chocolate

300ml single cream

Whole milk

Cake

1 - Grease and flour your baking tin

2 - Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4

3 - Cream the butter and sugar together till the butter has
turned white.

4 - Add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, adding a
spoonful of flour between each.

5 - Fold in the rest of the flour and the corn flour, adding no
baking powder, and when all is incorporated, add the milk as you need.

6 - Pour and scrape the batter into the tin and bake for about
40 minutes until the cake is beginning to come away at the edges, is springy to
the touch on top and a cake-tester comes out clean.

7 - Take out cake and leave to cool for an hour.

Assembly

1 - When you take out the cake from the oven, take out your ice cream
from the freezer.

2 - When cake is completely cool (about an hour), remove it from the spring form
pan, and slice in half horizontally (Tip: Sticking toothpicks into the side of the cake at the halfway
mark at regular intervals all the way around will help you guide
your knife and cut it evenly)

3 - Put the bottom half back into the spring form pan (exposed side facing up). Handle
the cake carefully as it will be delicate but don't worry too much about
mistakes as you can cover a multitude of sins with the ice cream and fudge
sauce.

4 - Evenly spread the first layer (1 litre) of ice cream on top
of the half cake in the baking tin, making sure to spread it all the way to the
edges. Follow with the second flavour, again spreading evenly and round the
edges.

5 - Cover with the top half of the cake. Wrap the tin in cling
film and place back into the freezer.

Fudge sauce

Make the fudge sauce about 10 minutes before you intend to serve
the cake.

1 - Break the chocolate up and melt it (I melt chocolate in a Pyrex
bowl placed in a wok partially filled with water)

2 - When melted, take the chocolate off the heat and stir in the
cream, stirring continuously.

3 - You want it quite liquid as it will harden once it is poured
onto the frozen cake so add milk to get it to a liquid consistency (think the
consistency of gravy).

4 - When you are ready to serve the cake, place spring form tin
on a large plate, open up the clasp and lift the side of the tin off the
cake.

5 - Pour the hot fudge sauce over the top, drizzling some down the sides. I kept half of the fudge sauce and poured
a bit over each individual slice.

Tip: To cut the ice cream cake, have a pitcher of hot water
nearby and dip the knife into it in between cutting each slice

Friday, 10 September 2010

I don't need to explain meat pies to
any Nigerian readers. For non-Nigerian readers, meat pies are a snack food
similar to Jamaican Patties (but I think all Nigerians would agree that meat
pies are better ;p). We had them during our lunch breaks at school, bought them
from Mr. Biggs (a Nigerian fast food joint), they form an integral part of any
good 'small chops' plate - in fact meat pies are to Nigerians what cold water
is to garri. Hmmm, okay, for a non- Nigerian metaphor ... okay, got one, meat
pies are to Nigerians what a tea bag is to tea - absolutely essential! Good
comparison huh ;p

Despite being so 'essential', I might
have made them once in home economics class at school but never since. I got my
meat pie fixes from parties and ChickenRepublic on my yearly visits to Nigeria and
from my friend Irene in between. Irene makes great meat pies (not often enough
by any means) but enough that I never felt the need to learn how to make them
myself. In fact, she gave me this recipe a long while ago, after she first made
them for us, but I never felt the need to use it till now. 'Why?' I hear you
ask. Because friends, my 'friend' Irene decided to move back to Nigeria! Did
she stop to think of the consequences this would have on her meat pie loving
friends??? Nope! Luckily, I stepped up, tried Irene's recipe and realised that
in lieu of her actually being here to make them, she had left the next best
thing; a great recipe. So without further ado, here it is!

I'd never made pastry before but
following Irene's instructions, it was easy peasy.

Makes approximately 18 pies

Ingredients

Pastry

500g plain flour

5 tablespoons of cold butter

1 level teaspoon salt

1 level teaspoon nutmeg

Warm water

Filling

250g beef mince

1 onion, finely cubed

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 large potatoes (not baking
potatoes), peeled and finely cubed

1 carrot, peeled and finely cubed

Handful of peas and sweetcorn

Seasoning (thyme, black pepper, salt)

Assembly

Flour

One egg, beaten with a dash of milk

Pastry

1 - Measure the flour into a clean,
dry bowl. Add the salt and nutmeg and stir together

2 - Break off the 5 tablespoons of
butter (large spoon fulls) and add to the flour

3 - With your hands, rub the butter
into the flour piece by piece until it all disappears and the flour is crumbly.
Add one more tablespoon of butter if necessary. The flour should be crumbly but
light. This process should take you at least 10 minutes. Any quicker and you're
being too heavy handed. As you rub the butter into the flour, lift it and
let it fall back into the bowl, this is to allow air into it.

4 - Add water to the mix, tablespoons
at a time kneading it with your hands until the dough bonds together completely
leaving the bowl clean. You don't want the pastry too dry so it is crumbly; you
need to be able to roll it out.

5 - Wrap it in cling film and put it in
the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Meat pies are all about the pastry,
practice makes perfect

Preheat oven to 180ºC

Filling

1 - In a pan or wok, heat up 4
tablespoons of oil, and on low heat, add the onions and garlic.

2 - When browned, add the mince and
fry for a couple of minutes till mince is cooked.

3 - Add a cup of water and the rest
of the vegetables and leave to simmer for a few minutes then add seasoning to
taste. Season however you want; add chillies if you want it spicy.

4 - Leave to cook on low heat until
all the water is absorbed and the potatoes and carrots are cooked and tender.
Turn off and allow to cool.

Assembly

1 - Clean and dry a counter surface
and sprinkle with flour.

2 - I roll all the pastry out in one
go but you can do it in two lots if your surface isn't big enough. Dust your
rolling pin with flour and roll out your pastry. Not too thin.

3 - Cut using a cutter - I use a
large mug to get relatively small pies. If you want larger pies, use something
larger to cut. I make circles over all of the rolled out dough and then gather
the in between pieces into a ball ready to roll out for the next batch.

4 - Fill (but don't over fill) your
pastry on one side with mix. Keep mix away from edges. Keeping a small bowl of
water nearby and dipping one finger in, run your wet finger in a semi circle
round the edge of your circle where you intend the ends of the meat pie to meet.
This helps bond the dough when you fold the empty half of your pastry circle
over the half with the filling.

5 - Using your fingers, press down on
the ends and then using a fork, seal all the way round and pierce a couple of
times in the middle to allow the heat to escape when baking.

6 - Repeat until all your pies are
ready. Place pies on a baking tray and using a small brush, brush lightly with
beaten egg and milk.

Saturday, 4 September 2010

I have always loved baking and because I know my creations taste
great, I have never been too fussed about how they look. My housemate (who is
very into baked goods and their appearances) has actually laughed at my cakes a
few times. This one time, at band camp it was a Victoria Sponge which had risen
in the oven and then fallen as soon as I took it out so it was too thin to
slice in two. 'No biggie', I thought, 'I'll just put the cream and strawberries
on top in the manner of a tart'. And I was perfectly happy with this until my
housemate came in, took one look at it, pointed with one hand and burst out
laughing while trying to stifle his laughter with the other hand. Another time,
I had made a layer cake but only had enough frosting to cover the top of it so
the sides were frosting-less - he said it looked half naked! But it never
bothered me ... until I started baking cupcakes. Because let's be honest, cupcakes
are all about appearances! A layer cake will always taste better than a cupcake
but what cupcakes have is the potential to look so amazing that you actually
have a pang of regret when you bite into them. And now I'm very into appearances, not just of my cupcakes but all my cakes!

There are some really talented bakers around likeFaithy
The Bakerand4 Goodness Cake and they have inspired me
to work on learning to frost cakes so that one day I too might make incredible
cake creations just like theirs! But practice makes perfect so there is a lot
of baking and frosting in my future before I'm even close. Starting with a
cupcake decorating course atthe make loungein November - I can't wait! If anyone
knows of any other good cake decorating or even baking courses in London, please do let me
know! I might invest in a 'cake decorating for dummies' book after in order to
continue learning and progressing. Again, if anybody can recommend any good BEGINNERS
cake decorating books, then please let me know.

I'm sure it's not coincidence that I'm trying to improve my
craft around the same time that I have realised that I would like to take this
baking thing more seriously and start baking for parties and events from home.
I had a taste of mass baking the last couple of weekends. I made a huge, rather rude
cake for a friend's Hen Party a couple of weekends ago despite much initial
protest on my part that I had never made a willy cake and wouldn't even know
where to start. After much discussion with my cousin (who begged, pleaded and
cajoled me into making the cake), I decided to make a vanilla sponge cake with
a strawberry cream filling and vanilla buttercream icing using the recipe for
the vanilla cupcakes I blogged about here. And then for the piece de
resistance, we bought a willy mould into which I poured melted chocolate and
voila – an 8 inch chocolate willy! Due to the fact that I’d like my blog to have a
U rating, I’m not going to post pictures but email me if you’d like to see one!

My baking the following weekend was more family friendly – 60 cupcakes;
half of them vanilla with vanilla buttercream frosting (as per my previous post) and
half red velvet with cream cheese frosting (which I’ll blog about in the
future). Despite only being able to bake 12 at a time, I really enjoyed the
process and it seemed everyone really enjoyed the results!

So if you’re in London
and you need some cupcakes, a cake, anything baked really, for an event or
party, let me know!

In other news, Nigella has a new book out; Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Homewhich has been promptly added to my Amazon wish list! Bring
on Christmas or Amazon might send me an angry email telling me to stop adding
books to my wish list unless I start buying books from it!